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Summary: Angela's Ashes: A Review
Review: I read Angela's Ashes just recently for a Research Writing class, and I was relieved to find McCourt's account so enlightening. Although his life was full of pain and saddness, he never let it get him down. I read the book teary-eyed, laughing and into deep thoughts. I recommend this book to those who are willing to put themselves into another's hands, for a while, as they read "Angela's Ashes".
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Summary: A lesson in discretion
Review: I found Angela's Ashes to be boring. It droned on with the depressing and shocking accounts of Frank McCourt's childhood. There were so many of his experiences that could have been left out. I do not need to read about his first sexual experiences (both with himself and others). I kept reading this book, and hating to see that I still had so far to go. This book was a chore to read and a disgrace to the McCourt family. The world does not need to know that Angela McCourt slept with her cousin. I also do not like the fact that Frank McCourt is getting such praise for abandoning his family and stealing from so many people. I also found that this was 400 pages of little punctuation. Please Mr. McCourt, learn how to use a comma! My last major fault with this book: Frank McCourt is a wonder to science. To be 70 years old and have such a detailed account of his earliest years, let's just say that you are a miracle Mr. McCourt. Still, this was a good attempt. If the author could have done a little more editing and left out a few things, this would have been a decent book. This was, however, far from Pulitzer quality.
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Summary: Excellent Story
Review: A story of abuse,depression and dysfunction. The book catches hold of your heart and is such a book it is hard to put down. The writer tells the story in such a way that it is gripping. An excellent memoir that rates up there with other memoirs i have had the honor of reading such as Nightmares Echo, The Only Girl in The Car,Running With Scissors and Dress Your family In Corduroy.
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Summary: A glimpse into the burnt out fires of the past
Review: _Angela's Ashes_ provides a modern day audience, influenced by more than sixty years of economic prosperity, with an image of a past riven with poverty, racism, and ignorance. Frank McCourt tells of his life from the point of view of a young child forced to grasp maturity at an early age. Only a child could provide such an honest outlook of the world amidst such hardship, for only a child, lacking in worldly experience, would not realize that his life was a trial in the first place. Born of Irish immigrants in New York--his father an alcoholic who nearly drives his mother to mental instability--he first experiences life's struggles in the grand melting pot during the years before the Great Depression. After the hard times of 1929 and losing a child, the McCourt family moves back to Ireland where the children are met with contempt and sometimes persecution. From this moment on, young Frank lives the life of the poorest of poor even among the troubled Irish, but he lives. Frank McCourt has survived well indeed to tell this tale to a generation which often takes its wealth and comfort for granted and to provide hope to those who might feel they are burdened with the world's problems.
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Summary: a memoir of myself?
Review: This book is simply incredible and the inclusion of the patriotic and doleful poems of the Irish make it simply the best and stand out from the rest. Frank Mc Court has retold the story in a perspective of a child and I wonder how could he retell each and everything so clearly and touchingly.... so hands up for him... Mc Court is one of the greatest Irish writer ever.... This book has broken my heart, made me laugh, brought tears in my eyes and has made me obsessed with Little Frankie and his sore eyes....I never wanted to finish Angela's Ashes and wish I could continue reading it forever and ever.... If you are keen about Frankie's life then Tis' is a must read book...I wish I could invite Frankie during Christmas so that he didnt have to eat the pig's head....
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Summary: The Losses, The Gains
Review: Frank McCourt, the author of the touching memoir, Angela's Ashes, commences his life in Brooklyn, New York in 1935. There, his mother, Angela becomes depressed after the death of the newly born, Margaret. The family returns to their homeland, Limerick, Ireland. This concept is bizarre because then, most people departed Ireland destined for a new life in America; however the McCourt's do the complete opposite. Many problems arise in Limerick, and their entire lives' change.
In Ireland, they move into a two-floored apartment, which is in terrible living condition. During the winter, they have to live upstairs because the downstairs is flooded. The weather changes the mood for everyone and is a symbol of many different feelings including sadness and loneliness. It sets the tone for Frank's life. In the meantime, Angela is impregnated with more children, most of whom die in the end. The father, Malachy, is an alcoholic and spends all his money earned on himself rather than his family. He shares numerous stories and legends with Frank and is able to gain his love and respect. Malachy is from Northern Ireland and everyone in Limerick, including Angela's family, dislikes him for that reason. The McCourt family is very Catholic and after Frank is confirmed, a feeling of manhood is noticed. The brothers attend an all-boy's Catholic school in Ireland; however, because they are not as privileged as many of the other boys, a feeling of lowness is perceived. After Frank becomes sick, he acquires a love of Shakespeare and his ability of language is noticed by his school, along with his talent of storytelling. Frank's father heads off to England to make money for the family, which he is supposed to send back. However, the money never shows up, except for one time. After visiting his family once, Malachy never shows up again. Frank is able to develop more as a man because in a sense, he is the man of the house. While this is happening, the family's apartment is taken away from them and they have no choice, but to move in with Angela's cousin, Laman. Laman is a horrible, obnoxious man who Angela sleeps with. Frank becomes discouraged and angry with everything that is going on. Therefore, he gets a job as a messenger boy and becomes involved in a sexual relationship with a customer named Theresa Carmody. However, she dies of consumption, which leaves Frank depressed and heart-broken. The still thought of moving back to New York stays in Frank's mind throughout the entire memoir.
McCourt uses the first person point of view in his gripping memoir. The novel is made up of English writing; however he includes much dialect of the Irish, English, and American. McCourt matches up his tone with the narrator's age perfectly and as the book unwinds, he becomes more serious and mature. His humor, modesty, and down-to-earth way of writing makes the reader feel alive in the story.
Frank has to undergo many different deprived feelings. He has to suffer hunger, disregard, the depressing weather, his father's alcohol problem, disease, poverty, and many deaths. Many people look down at him because of his social standings. He receives hostility from the schoolmasters, priests, his family members and sometimes, himself. He wants to rise up from poverty more than anything.
The authors writing style is unusual. An excerpt from the book that greatly displays the authors style takes place on the first page of chapter one, when McCourt describes his life, "When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood...the poverty; the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters...Above all- we were wet" (11).
In a way, the author is misleading the reader because he is using humor, when really the story is not humorous, but only depressing, sad, and cheerless. McCourt has a strong adult opinion at this point in the book, but this is the only time, because after this, the book takes the opinion of a child and their perspective on life.
Personally, realizing how deprived a child's life can be, I am able to realize how privileged I am. I am able to eat, have shelter, have a family, be clothed, and able to afford proper medicines. Frank McCourt has to endure many hardships; ultimately, his childhood is a hardship. However, he is able to make the best of his childhood and fulfill his upbringing dream. After reading this memoir, my perception has changed and broadened. It helped change my outlook on life, my anger, my sadness, and most of all, myself.
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Summary: It Makes You Laugh and Cry at the Same Time
Review: The greatest aspect of Angela's Ashes is that you feel like Frank McCourt really put himself in that book. The narrator really is him. Unlike most memoirs, you get the sense that you are sitting with McCourt at a table and he's telling you his story. You can tell he's being facetious, you're not sure all of the story is exactly how it happened, but you don't care because the story is so good and the message he's trying to deliver is so honest that it doesn't really matter. The narrator and the author just happen to be natural born storytellers and they tell it to you the way they felt it because sometimes that's more honest than telling you the way it was.
With most other memoirs you get the sense that they don't share seem to have any feelings about any of the events happening. The author, of course, felt the story because he's the one being written about, but somehow they never place those feelings in the mouth (or words) of the narrator. The book might as well have been written by a biographer.
But McCourt writes in his own voice. And you can almost feel him reliving these stories as he tells you about them. At one minute, he's crying over heartbreak and the next he's laughing at the irony spread throughout the story of his life.
When he's at his best, he is laughing with you at the child he once was, the beliefs he once had.
The book is terrific, but I don't have to tell you that because you already know.
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Summary: Angela's Ashes
Review: Frank McCourt's childhood memoir is written so beautifully that I return to it over and over again to remind myself of just how wonderful words can be.
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Summary: One of the finest works I have ever read
Review: Frank McCourt writes his memoir in the pitch-perfect language and consciousness of an Irish-Catholic boy. This work is a wonder to behold and although the story is sad (as are most Irish stories) there is a strong current of hope running through the pages. Young Frankie struggles against his broken home, the church, his own shortcomings and he finds tragedy and hope in the details of Irish life. If you value great writing, language-skills and story-telling, you will love this work. It remains one of the finest I have ever read.
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Summary: A Compelling Memoir...
Review: In Frank McCourt's compelling memoir Angela's Ashes he shares the story of his tragic childhood as his family battles the struggles of poverty. Frank's memoir of his childhood begins in Brooklyn, New York in 1935 when his mother, Angela, and his father, Malachy travel from Ireland in hopes of a better life. Frank was born out of wedlock, forcing his parents to eventually marry. Frank is raised in the house of a cigarette addicted mother and an alcoholic father, and is forced to take on many grueling responsibilities. Their family continues to grow, causing them to fall deeper into poverty. The dreadful poverty and the devastating death of his sister, Margaret, eventually drove Frank and his now growing family back to Limerick, Ireland. In Ireland, Angela's mother bought them an apartment which eventually became their home. Frank and Malachy are enrolled in a Catholic school, where they are often tormented by the other boys for being less fortunate. The boys are not only looked down upon by their classmates, but also by the school masters. Frank's teachers chose to treat him inferior because of their lower social status. As Frank grows older more responsibility is placed upon him to raise his younger siblings. He is forced to lead his family as they beg for food and money from neighbors and church. Their poverty becomes even more serious as their father continues to throw their money away to satisfy his alcohol obsession. Frank is now old enough to hear his father stumble in at night belting Irish songs. He is old enough to hear is mother yelling and sobbing at her husband to become a respectable man and look after his failing family. Despite these late drunken nights, Frank remembers the stories his father shared with him when he was a young boy, and the lessons he instilled in him, trying to position that image over his now drunken father. His father then decides to move to England to work in the factories at the onset of World War II, hoping to earn money to support his family. As expected, he is unfaithful to his word and spends the little money he earns on drinks. The McCourt's are no longer able to pay their small rent, and are forced out of their apartment. Reluctantly, Angela's relatives offer to house the struggling family. At the age of fifteen, Frank has experienced far more then the average grown man and decides that it is time for change. He has lived through hunger, devastation, tears, and death and has witnessed his family fall to pieces. He is certain that this is not the way for him to live, and is ready to become an independent, self-sufficient man. To begin his path away from these horrors he finds a job as a mailman, hoping to someday earn the money to escape back to America.
Frank McCourt was able to open my eyes to the horrors and tribulations of poverty. The everlasting hardships told through the eyes of a young boy allowed me to realize the sincere pain that is experienced. As jobs were lost, and deaths occurred I fell deeper into the misery of the McCourt family. As I read through his life, both laughter and tears were shared. Frank McCourt told this novel using the first person, sharing his stories as if they were occurring for the first time. As he grew older and experienced greater troubles, his writing style became more serious. Although mostly a horrifying story, McCourt used a humorous style to express childhood memories to at times relive the reader from the sometimes upsetting stories. However, the visions of Frank's struggling family still linger in my mind. "When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.
. . . nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years."
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